Board of Health: February 9, 2021

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:01 Let’s call the meeting to order. We have no minutes to go over tonight, so we’ll go right to the COVID update. I want to start by just bringing up the School Committee meeting that was last Thursday. We have made our recommendations to the School Committee. They made their decision. They made their choice. And I think that at this point, at this meeting tonight, it’s not our place to rehash that or to discuss what the School Committee’s decision was. If they want to ask us more advice, more opinion, more recommendations, we’re happy to discuss that. But I think at this point, we’re best off just doing the rest of the COVID update but not going into what happened at the School Committee meeting last week. Let them do their thing. Let them figure out their plan, and then we can talk about it more if we need to. That’s what I would like to do at this meeting. Agreed. Michelle? So when would be an appropriate time for me to make some comments regarding what the issues discussed at… If I have some comments regarding schools, when would be an appropriate time to mention that? I guess, Andrew, do you have anything about the schools in your report? I do not. So go for it, Michelle.

1:33 Really? It feels like a weird time in the meeting to just jump in right now after… I don’t know. I mean, it feels like we should do our regular orders of business and where we are as the town and all our orders of business and then make my statement. It feels a little strange for me to jump right into that right now. Okay. I’d rather hear it now because I think that we would have limited discussion, and I think that might limit the discussion if we have it now. Well, I mean, it’s up to the chair to limit discussion. That’s his prerogative. No, no, I meant with the public because the public is waiting to hear from the superintendent. So… The superintendent’s not on, is he? No, but they’re waiting for the superintendent to make a decision. It’s in their hands now, you’re saying. Yes. So whatever you say is for us to discuss. Yeah, I mean, I brought it up, Michelle. I guess whether it’s before and after, we might as well… All right, I will share with you what I have to say. Go for it. I’m probably punting because none of this is easy, right? But you have information, we’d like to hear it. I don’t actually have information as much as I just want to share some thoughts, because I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

3:04 As I know, many people in our community have been thinking about it. And I feel like… So I just want to say, I’m deeply concerned about our students, our community, our teachers, and I feel like the messaging from the Board of Health at this point should be a little bit more nuanced than it has been regarding our six-foot distancing. That’s our recommendation. Just given all of the conversations that have been happening around town and what we’ve heard from the school committee meeting and everything that’s happened since then and the memo that’s gone out from Dr. Bucky, et cetera. So I guess the reason I wanted to make a bit of a statement or just share some thoughts is that it feels to me that it’s our responsibility to be a little bit nuanced in our messaging, even though all of our thoughts or recommendations are purely advisory and we are not making any decisions for the schools, it still, I think, behooves us to share a little bit more information.

4:36 And I say this with a really heavy heart, because I feel like this has been a really difficult week. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I say this knowing that how much I care about students in our community and teachers, many of them who are extremely close friends, friends who are on this call, and I think about them all the time. And I don’t, you know, I don’t, I don’t know, I can’t imagine being in their shoes right now. But I do think that what we are learning is that there may be ways for us to think about, and I think this is where what the school department is trying to explore is how can we increase some in-person learning? How can we up the ante on in-person learning for the community? And I guess what I want to say to anybody who’s going to be part of those decisions for the school department, whether it be school committee or administrative leaders in our community and or from the teacher community and or the union, is to think about how do we do this in a, in the most thoughtful way. And I guess here are some thoughts I have.

6:08 We should continue to strive for the six feet of distancing as much as possible. I heard Dr. Bucki say like, yes, we should still be shooting for six feet of distancing, knowing that the minimum is really three feet. And I think we should remember that that is three feet minimum for student to student, but that we should always be thinking when it comes to our teachers, that it is six feet distancing for students to teachers. Now, we know that already it’s impossible for many of our teachers to keep six foot distancing when they’re interacting with students on kind of a short term basis. But I think we should be thinking in terms of like desks and where they’re set up, that we should always be thinking about six foot distancing from students to adults or, you know, students to our teachers. And that should be something that should really be, we should really hold ourselves to, even if we’re thinking about a smaller distancing between students, because we know that the adults and the teachers are the ones that are generally more at risk from what we’re seeing from all the data. Here’s a quote from the Washington Post editorial that many of you have read, which was then, I believe, taken from the Harvard School of Public Health, quote,

7:43 teachers should continue to distance six feet from students as much as possible, limit adult to adult interaction and wear better masks. A three layer mask is very effective in these lower risk settings, while transient close range interactions are bound to happen in a classroom. I’m editorializing, we know that happens. These are lower risk due to their short duration and masking. So, you know, we know those short duration events happen, but it’s those other, you know, established barriers that, you know, we should keep in mind. And one other thing I should wanted to say about teachers is that in terms of PPE, you know, we know that teachers aren’t being vaccinated in Massachusetts, which I think is a failure on our part as a commonwealth. But because they’re not being vaccinated, we should be thinking about as a community and as a town, if resources are coming to us, or if we are thinking about raising funds as a town, like for the buckets and things that we’re doing, how can we get filtration masks and better masks to our teachers as we’re, you know, making our classrooms a little bit more crowded? How can we get those safer masks to our teachers if they don’t have them? Focus on ventilation and getting outside as much as possible, particularly as weather gets warmer. But even if it’s not warmer, we know that we have a lot of resources at hand that Harvard, you know, healthy building resource that I know all of our reopening committee folks have has many, many good resources in there.

9:29 And so, I think that the school is in there on ventilation, and we should be taking that very seriously as we think about making our schools a little bit more crowded. We should think about, as I mentioned before, minimizing adult-to-adult interactions. I know the schools are already thinking about beginning, really beginning with the youngest learners. I know that in terms of mental health concerns, we’re all talking about our teens and older learners, and of course, we want to move to that population. But in terms of where the lower risk is in terms of COVID and transmission and concerns about outcomes, it’s the younger learners where there’s just a lower risk. So, I believe that that’s the area where the focus needs to begin at first. So, that’s kind of my more nuanced messaging, rather than just kind of stating to all of you, six feet, six feet, because I do believe I see where things are headed and I didn’t want to just kind of dig my heels in, because I do believe we have learned a lot more over the number of months, and I’ve shared a number of resources with school committee chair, Dr. Bucky, and my board members, and Andrew, and Nurse Deanna, with all of the latest information on schools and COVID and reopening, etc.

11:09 And I do think that there is more convincing evidence that we can feel more comfortable, but I think we really, really have to be careful about how we do it, and I think we have to be really, really careful about protecting the adults in our schools, especially given the fact that they haven’t been vaccinated. Well, casuals on here, John. Amy, you will please mute yourself. So, especially given the fact that we are not vaccinating our teachers. So, those are my thoughts. And, yeah, let’s tread really carefully. And, you know, and I just I’ve taken heart to all of the concerns about mental health, but I also know that it’s not going to be like this, you know, kind of magic bullet that we, you know, put kids in school five days a week, and suddenly, all of the kind of mental health issues are fixed. I think that there’s a lot, you know, a lot of work to be done in our societies just in general. So, let’s like all be kind to each other and work with each other and recognize that this isn’t just a simple thing. And it’s just been it’s saddened me to see, you know, parents, you know, taking down the union and teachers and, you know, it’s just there’s just so much vitriol and it’s, I don’t know,

12:48 I’ve just been really shocked and saddened to see all of that. So, let’s move through this kind of carefully and kindly and think about, you know, those teachers who are working so hard through all of this to care for the mental health of these students, even while things are remote, because I think there’s a lot that can be done. So, yes, let’s move towards getting those kids into school. But let’s do it safely and not rush towards things. So, those are my thoughts. Aline? I just have a few comments because it wasn’t on the agenda, but thank you for sharing your thoughts, Michelle, I think it’s important. If I recall correctly, it was discussed at the opening committee meetings that the teachers were going to get better PPE or that they were discussing that. So, I think that you don’t have to concern yourself about that, but I’m glad you brought it up so that we all can hear it. The other thing is, I’m really, really concerned about the variance, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this. So, we have to consider the physical health along with the mental health. We have to have a balance. So, I understand, look, I’m a parent, I’m a grandparent, I have children that are parents. I understand the frustration of having children home for almost a year, it would be a year in another few weeks, and it’s upsetting.

14:31 But we can’t have this another surge. We’ve had the original outbreak and several surges over holidays. And the thing that I’m going to say something that’s not popular, because I think that we can’t parent the children. I think the parents need to parent their children. If they need care, I hope that they can get it. I understand, because I looked into it this week, because I too was upset. And I understand that the schools have a list of therapists. I don’t know if the parents have utilized it, if all the therapists on the North Shore are busy. I certainly am upset that the counseling center is overloaded, because that’s our place that we have for, and we also, as a board, give the counseling center money in our budget, from our budget. And I wish that they could handle more people. I’ve even asked a couple of people to go through some per diem there. I don’t know if they did or they didn’t, but trained professionals, of course. So, that’s my answer to one of your concerns, and then I have other concerns. And also, I know that, or I shouldn’t I say I know, I know that Dr. Bucky’s been discussing this at reopening committee in various ways for several weeks. He’s not doing this in a vacuum. He’s not doing it hastily. And I have faith in what he’s doing. If he ends up making a decision for his school department, we’ll have to see what happens.

16:16 But I hope that the outcome is good. Thank you. I see a number of raised hands. I’m going to keep our protocol and we’re going to hold off on comments from the public until the end of our reports. So, if you want to keep your hands raised, that’s fine. If you want to re-raise them later, that’s also fine. I just want to second what Helene said, that I am also very concerned about these variants. And there’s just so many unknowns right now. And I think that those cannot be forgotten. They, who knows if they are worse for children, more contagious for children, have worse health effects for children. I think that the variants are very scary or potentially very scary, and we need to not forget that. And we don’t want to have a fourth surge like Dr. Fauci, I think just last night said there is very likely going to be another surge if we’re not careful. And obviously, without saying, extremely concerned, share your concerns about those variants. And all of my comments, and I would hope when the school folks are thinking about this, every decision around all these things needs to be grounded in where we are in terms of community spread and positivity rate. And absolutely cognizant of that.

17:50 You know, not just what you just said about impacts on children, but also where we are in terms of spread in the community as well. And I just want to also reiterate what I said before is that the school committees made their decisions. So we are not the forum to to affect school committee policy. So if they ask us for more guidance, we were happy to do what we can. But this is not the place tonight to say that the school committee did the right thing, did the wrong thing. We are not this is not another school committee meeting tonight. This is the Board of Health. And so I just want to make sure that that’s really clear. So on that note, Andrew, your rest of the report, please. Sounds good. As of February 5, we’ve had 1070 cases in Marblehead. At that time, we had 94 active cases. So far, we’ve had 31 deaths. For the last two weeks, we’ve had 151 cases. We’ve had 22 cases from zero to 19, 35 cases, 20 to 29, 17 cases, 30 to 39, 20 cases, 40 to 49, 27, 50 to 59, 20, 60 to 69, 7, 70 to 79, and 380. Average daily incident rate per 100,000 for the last 14 days was elevated to 55.2. A total of 35,070 tests have been taken by Marblehead residents.

19:26 Over the last 14 days, 4,134 tests were taken. And we had a percent positive for the last 14 days of 4.11 percent, up from 3.67 percent. From what? What was the number, please? 4.11, up from what? 3.67 percent. People over the age of 65 and people who have underlying health conditions who are at high risk for COVID-19 should continue to stay home except for essential errands such as going to the grocery store and to attend to health care needs. All residents are advised to leave home only for health care, worship and permitted work, shopping and activities. When going to the pharmacy, ask if you can fill your prescriptions for 90 days if possible. For some medications, this is not allowed. If you are at a high risk, try to use a mail order service. All residents are required to wear face masks or cloth face coverings in all public places, whether indoors or outdoors. Even where they are able to maintain 6 feet of distance from others. Parents should limit play dates for children. All residents are advised to wash their hands frequently for at least 20 seconds with soapy water. All residents are advised to be vigilant, monitor for symptoms and stay home if you feel sick. Use remote modes of communication like phone or video chat instead of visiting friends or family who are at high risk for COVID-19. We have had some changes in the state as far as regulations go.

21:00 So we have expiring effective money, February 8th at 5am. The following are able to return to 40% capacity. Arcades and recreational businesses, driving and flight schools, gyms and health clubs, libraries, museums, retail, offices, places of worship, lodging in the common areas, golf, indoor areas, movie theaters, no more than 50 people per theater. Restaurants will now be limited to 40% of their seated capacity and as under the 25% capacity rule, employees will not count toward the limit. 90 minutes per seating rule does not change. Close contact personal services will now be limited to 40% capacity as under the 25% capacity rule, employees will not be counted toward the limit. A limit of 5 people per 1,000 square feet applies for small businesses without an available fire occupancy capacity. There continues to be no capacity limits on manufacturing, construction and laboratories. These sectors have never had capacity limits. Gathering orders, the gathering limit will stay at 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors. The Commonwealth remains in phase 3, step 1, of reopening order number 58, indoor performance venues and indoor recreation businesses like roller rinks and trampoline parks remain closed. Obviously there’s a lot of changes taking place for regulations. So you need to remember that if you’re looking for regulation changes, there’s several different places that you need to go to.

22:41 Massachusetts Division of Labor, EUEA, so if you have questions about that, please check the mass.gov website as things change all the time. If you have additional questions, you can always contact the health department and we can guide you in the right direction. Obviously still we have all visitors entering Massachusetts including returning residents who got meet in exemption are required to complete the Massachusetts travel form prior to arrival and follow the travel advice. We are currently working on vaccination. Unfortunately, we’ve had a little bit of a slow rollout. We’ve had a huge demand and a constraint on vaccine supply. So COVID-19 vaccinations appointments are limited. More appointments will be available based on supply from the federal government. Appointments will be added on a rolling basis. We are currently working on anyone in phase 1 and individuals 75 plus in phase 2. There are obviously several different locations that you really need to go to look for vaccinations. Obviously mass.gov vaccinations, you can contact, look at the CVS sites. Your primary care physicians, your partners groups and stuff like that are often emailing people that fall within the categories to try to get them to come in.

24:13 Also we are holding local clinics trying to suit a certain population. Obviously there is a lot of information about creative profile and try to get information from the state. There is also information on call 211. Obviously there has been a lot of discussion about mental health services. If you or your family member experience a mental health or substance use disorder crisis, the emergency service program mobile crisis intervention is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Anyone may contact ESP MCI for assistance. Call toll free 1-877-382-1609. Obviously also on the mass.gov there is a lot of other links. Domestic violence and sexual assault. Child abuse and endangerment and also nursing home concerns. As far as vaccinations go, we have a total of 497 people, residents in Marblehead have been fully vaccinated and 1,513 people have received their first dose of vaccine. We are currently holding clinics at different locations. This week we are holding clinics for all first responders. On Friday we are holding clinics at Salem State for 75 plus and we will continue to hold clinics during the month of February trying to reach certain populations.

25:48 Please remember that these clinics are going to take some time as it is required to get first and second doses. There is a slightly difference between a Moderna dose. For Moderna we have to give the second dose 28 days later. For Pfizer it is 21. I cannot give Pfizer and Moderna out at the same clinic. It is not recommended. I have to make sure I am having alternating days and everything coincides. We are working as a coalition in the North Shore. We are working with Salem, Swam Scott, Beverly and Danvers and Marblehead is working together to vaccinate as many people as possible. Trying to reach special populations. Our elder, our first responders. We will continue to travel around to these different communities to try to reach these different populations in the coming weeks. Last week you said there is an expected shortage. Is that a week later? Is that still the thought? Currently we are able to get Pfizer. I can no longer get Moderna. We will continue to get Pfizer vaccine. We are working with Salem State Hospital to store it there. We will continue to work with this and get it out to the public as quickly as possible. Obviously we have limited staff so we can only do so much. If you are not muted please mute yourselves. Thank you. That is it. Play it Michelle.

27:21 No, I think he answered all the questions. He was very thorough. Can you give a location of the Salem State location because it is a little different than what people may know. The best way to find it is if you go into mass.gov and go into vaccinations. There is a map that shows all the different vaccination sites across the state. If you click on each site it will tell you how many doses they have available. That is really one of the best ways to try to get vaccinated. Patriot Place for whatever reason tends to have an enormous amount of vaccine available. Fortunately, yes, that is a long distance travel to get vaccinated. The closest mega site as we call it is in Danvers. So you can go onto the website on a regular basis. Unfortunately you do need to continue to go onto the website to see as it updates. If you one day there is nothing there you need to go back the next day to see if there is anything that has updated. You also have to make sure that you are following the guidelines from the state about who is being vaccinated and when. We are required to follow these guidelines and we have been told that if we vaccinate anybody outside of these guidelines we have the potential to lose source of vaccine. I heard a case of that. Yes. Outside of our state. I heard it.

28:51 They lost their ability for six months and that is not good for whatever state it is. What state is it? Was it New York? There have been cases in Massachusetts at this point also. Really? Losing the ability to get the ability to get vaccine. To get it for six months. They have not told us it’s a six month waiting period. They just said you’ll no longer be able to get it. Well this person whoever he was on one of the news channels. That is kind of in New York I don’t remember. Do you want to move right into the recycling update Andrew? As far as recycling goes. Obviously one of the concerns that we have during the winter months and during all times of the year. Is that please make sure that you put your recycling out properly. Especially during these high wind periods. So you are responsible for your recycling until it gets into the back of the truck. So if it’s a windy day make sure that your recycling is contained. We don’t want to see it blowing down the street. Obviously we are a coastal community. This material can end up in the ocean and contribute to micro plastics. This is a major concern. We do sell containers that have, they are reeled containers. They have a lid that is attached to them. We suggest that you get something like this. Obviously for cardboard boxes you need to break your cardboard boxes down. They can be placed next to your container.

30:23 They do not have to be in it. But same thing. We do not want this material being blown down the street. So we are reminding people to be really conscious of this. We are a coastal community and we don’t want this stuff to end up in the ocean. We also care about our environment. We don’t want this to litter our community. As far as our waste contracts we are looking to, we need, we have one more year of our waste disposal contract with waste management. At our next meeting we are really going to have to discuss, do we enter into another contract with them? I have done some research and looked at other contracts across the state. Winchester just signed a contract with another disposal company. So we are able to get some cost comparisons. Waste management is actually giving us much better cost than this community received for waste disposal. It is always hard and important to make sure you try to compare apples to apples. Our waste disposal includes waste disposal and trucking. So if you are looking at all communities you have to make sure that you are comparing other communities that include the trucking. Or if you take out the trucking there is other, you know, we have an idea of exactly how much trucking costs. It is roughly $20 to $30 a ton. So that is something that we really need to talk about at our next meeting. And decide if we want to enter into a contract with waste management. And how long do we want that contract to be? And you will have some figures for us then? Yeah, I will send you out figures that I have from them and this other additional material or information that I have from Winchester.

31:59 What is the deadline to make the decision? I have been continuing to talk to waste management and say it is an ongoing negotiation. But it is not open ended. We need to kind of come to a decision. Like I said, we do have another year. But they will not, you know, if we decide to walk away, when we come back, if we choose to come back to them, I am sure the cost will be different. So when we lost the contract, Swamps got to it also, when they went to another company, are you looking into that company? So that is a collection contract. This is for disposal. So we have a 10 year collection contract with JRM. I believe we are entering into year 6. But this is just for disposal with the trash leaving the transfer station and going to the disposal facility set up by waste management. Okay. We will talk about that next time. Yep. The recycling update? That is it. And I have one question. Where does waste management haul their products to? So waste management is currently hauling up to Keystone, New Hampshire. It is a landfill, but they harvest the methane to heat UNH. Oh, good. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. All right. So there is a bunch of hands raised. I do want to repeat that we don’t want to go in depth for the school committee’s decision last Thursday. I am going to just go in the order of people’s hands raised.

33:30 Sarah, you are first.

33:36 Thank you, Todd. And I appreciate that. I think it is very important people understand that we are independently elected boards, and it is not for the people on this board to have to kind of field our stuff. So I appreciate that. But a couple of questions I do have where we heard so much about mental health crisis, and I know you do have a relationship with the counseling center. Is it something that we could look at a joint effort? To possibly have some type of additional support groups or just an extra presence for particularly that teenage group, where I think we have reached such a fever pitch with the mental health issues, and where it is very obviously very connected to the schools, and I am deeply, deeply concerned. It really is something that affects our whole town. So I am not asking you in any way, shape, or form to you know, something for us. But I just didn’t know what the resources you have, if there are suggestions, or something that we can do as a town to kind of offer something. So I didn’t know. Decades ago, the school department had a contract with the school department, but now you have a police officer from Marblehead Police Station that does do outreach for the high school kids.

35:17 Andrew, I think you told me he was on leave or something. So I am not so sure that the school is using the resource officer currently. They are not using the resource officer. So I just didn’t know if, for instance, if there was an uptick in public health crisis, typically would public health, is that something that would fall under public health, or no? I just don’t actually, I mean, I didn’t know where once, where once role began and once ended. Well obviously, your school counselors would play a major role in this. And they would be obviously communicating with us that they are looking for additional support. We could reach out to the state to see where we could find additional support. Obviously, mental health, there is a huge demand for it right now. So there is some huge waiting, you know, so long term waits. However, if it is a crisis situation, there is always somebody available. Obviously, that is why we are reading out that 1-800 number. But it is something that your school counseling services, if they are not able to handle the demand, they should be reaching out to both the school committee and to us if they need support. And Andrew, is that a number that is pretty prominent on your website? And also something that could be shared so we can make it prominent on our websites as well? Yeah, this is all coming from mascot.gov.

36:48 Okay. And then, on school related, I noticed when you said with the positive one week, it increased roughly 12 percent by my math. But yet we are opening the gyms, the health clubs, we are increasing the occupancy in person dining. And I know that those things come out at the state level and every town’s numbers vary. But as a town where ours increased 12 percent, is that a recommendation from you that our town hold the ought back possibly on opening that up? Or it is just the governor’s order is the governor’s order? So, I would love to stay true to the governor’s orders and try not to deviate from the governor’s orders.

37:40 Thank you very much. And if Michelle, if you could forward me any of that information you have, I’ve actually never had any of it forwarded to me. And so, where you’ve done, it sounds like a tremendous amount of research, I would love to have the opportunity to look it over. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Sarah, I don’t know if I have your email address, so I will need to get it from you. So, I have your cell phone number. So, I’ll text you my, I’ll make sure I text you and we’ll get it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Joan, you’re next. Thank you, guys, and thank you for all your hard work. I learned today that the Newbury Port Board of Health has partnered with their school department to offer a clinic for educators. The last, starting the last week of February. And I’m wondering if our Board of Health would, when educators are available for the vaccine, partner with the school department to offer a clinic to vaccinate all the teachers in Marblehead. Thank you, guys.

38:54 Andrew, is that… So, unfortunately, with that group, Joan, you know, we would love to be able to vaccinate all the teachers. That group is a very, very large group. So, it’s everything from early education to grocery, utility, food and agriculture, sanitation, public works. So, we have 1,200 employees. That’s a megasite vaccination clinic. That’s not something that we would do on a daily basis. Well, also, if we go out of order, isn’t it… Yeah, we’re only allowed to give the vaccine once that group has come up. Michelle? Joan, do you have anything written about that, though, just so we can read about how it’s being implemented and operationalized? So, this came from a principal in Newburyport who indicated that their staff has been allowed to sign up. That is a partnership with their Board of Health and their superintendent. So, I can pass on the information from that principal to you guys. But, yeah, that’s the information that I have. Just be interested to see how they’re doing it, given the constraints that Andrew knows we experience, would just be interested to see how they’re making that happen. And I can pass that information on. Thanks. Andrew, please. Hi, can you hear me okay?

40:26 I can probably just walk across the street to Helene’s house and do my questions from there. I realize that. So, I’d like to thank all of you for your service. You know, it is, I think, very commendable that you meet on such a frequent basis and you, unlike other committees, engage with your constituents. And I think that says a lot about you as a board. I have a few questions. And can you help clarify for, you know, I think there are a handful of parents on the phone or on this meeting. Can you help clarify the role that you play as an advisor to other organizations like the school committee, like the school district? You’re providing a recommendation. You provide counsel and advice. You sit on multiple, you sit on the reopening committee. So, I’d say you have undue influence on what’s decided there. But am I correct in just assuming that you’ve always provided recommendations? You don’t provide a mandate to the school district, is that correct? That’s correct. So, again, I just want to make sure I get this right. The Tower School could take your advice and they’ve elected not to, correct? Yes. Same thing with the Charter School, correct? I don’t know what the Charter School is doing.

41:59 So, they don’t even consult you? I guess they haven’t. Andrew, do they consult you? So, we talked to them on occasion, but it has not been a regular basis like we do with the Marvel head school committee. Okay. So, the school committee, for whatever reason, uses you and hides behind your advice and refuses to alter their positions, and they point to the Board of Health as one of the influencers in their decision-making process. And Dr. Bucky stated last week that his interpretation was that your position was changing had changed. But it hasn’t, correct? Are you talking about six feet? Yes. Yes, we have not changed our opinion on that. Okay. I just want to make sure I get all these facts straight, because it’s very confusing. Can I make a point? Sure. While I’m talking to my chair. This is where, yeah, I mean, we have previously, you know, we have previously voted and made specific recommendations on distancing. What I wanted to make clear when I made my statement is that, you know, I don’t think we’re making, you know, taking any additional votes right now. But, you know, I did want to make it clear that I, as I saw sand shifting and opinion shifting, and also I have read and seen data emerging and science emerging that I did want to voice my opinion as only one of three on the Board of Health.

43:50 That I am with certain constraints in place and procedures in place. I did want to express my openness to moving away from our kind of strident position around six feet. But given certain parameters in place. So, you know, so, so I wouldn’t. So that’s why I wanted to convey that there is some nuance within the board and given the fact that we are advisory and we are allowed to just share our kind of thoughts and guidance. And the schools are able to choose and do what they want with it. You know, you’re hearing from one individual, somebody with public and environmental health background. That’s me, what my thoughts are. You may hear different things from my co board members, but you are not hearing from me a strident strong position. Six feet or the highway. I’m saying that I believe we can be a little more flexible, but I think we have to be careful and we have to protect our teachers and we have to be very thoughtful in how we do this. So that’s what I’m saying.

45:26 So I kind of disagree in how that was just characterized. I’m sorry, I didn’t. I know, no, no, no. And characterized by my co board members as well. That it isn’t just six feet. That is what we have to say. I don’t think that’s what, you know, that’s what we’ve been saying all along. And that’s been our statement since the correct and I different from that tonight. You did right. Absolutely. You did. And I thank you, Michelle, for your independence and your viewpoint and it’s certainly appreciated. I have a couple of other questions and it just I want to make sure that I don’t overstep my bounds or your purview as a board. But Andrew, could you help me understand what data you have access to when COVID cases are presented to the board? Do the directors get that information about individuals, who they are, how old they are, what the demographics are on that? So obviously it depends on how much data, you know, so yes, we have demographics as far as age, but we do not have. So when we look at contact tracing, it’s trying to prevent the spread. It’s not trying to identify where it started. So depending on who does the interview also limits the amount of information that we receive. And is that shared with your colleagues on the board? That is not so that information is put into a it’s called Maven, which is the disease surveillance tracking system that we use in the state of Massachusetts.

47:06 So I have to go in there. There’s only two of us in the town. They’re allowed to look at this data and it’s myself in our public health nurse. And yes, there’s a certain piece of it that we’re allowed to pull out age, but they like us to group it in the way that it’s grouped per the report. Okay. Well, I just I thought there was a comment on last week’s meeting and it was by Todd who said, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a good half of the superintendent’s emails about COVID cases have to do with sports teams. So we don’t want to let that detail go forgotten. And it just struck me as somewhat. If you don’t have access to that information, Todd, why are you saying that? I don’t think it’s factually accurate. And the implication of saying it is that these kids got COVID by playing sports. Well, I get the emails that all school parents get from Dr. Bucky. And you know, the code you know, whether they got it from playing sports. Oh, so you’re going, do I know that they got it from playing sports? I do not know that, but I know that they’re spreading it by playing sports. We’re doing so. Todd, if they were spreading it by playing sports, then multiple people on the same team would be getting it. That’s not happening. So you made a statement that’s just not grounded in reality. Well, I take great difference to that opinion. My point back then. It came across as… My point back then last week was not to be taken as a statistic, but as an assumption. Not an assumption, but a amusing that it’s basically why are sports in place? That’s what I was asking.

48:55 I was not trying to be 43% of people. That was not what I was doing. I was just wondering why it was being spread by playing. You would be seeing headlines about it. You would be seeing multiple letters from the superintendent about multiple kids being affected. I can tell you that five teams have been, there have been five letters about sports teams and a quarantine. Who of them is concerned a team that I have know intimately well? In one case… The first case was a player. Do you know where that player got it? She didn’t get it from playing basketball. And if she had gotten it by playing basketball, don’t you think her teammates, her opponents would have gotten it? Well, we hear your point. Okay. So, and I think this speaks to a different issue. When you work collaboratively with other departments in town, the school department, I’d encourage you to focus on the collaboration and not focus on rigidity. Okay. I can give you a few different examples where, again, I don’t know how some of this stuff gets communicated. Okay. I don’t know, Andrew, how you work with the high school or how you work with different schools within town.

50:38 But the Board of Health gets, I think, I don’t know whether it’s fair or unfair, but you guys get thrown under the bus continually. Okay. Kids had to take the SATs in October, and Helene knows this all too well. Seven and a half hours, those kids sat in a field house without food, without water, and the Board of Health was blamed for that. Okay. And that is because you did not, again, I don’t know why that happened, but it would appear to be because of an inflexibility or rigidity around certain rules. And if you can’t make exceptions when they’re legitimately valid, guess who pays the price? Your constituents pay the price. Seven and a half hours, they sat there, denied food or water. Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay get treated more humanely than others. Okay. So I think you’re going a little far now. So I’m going to go to the next person on the list. Thank you for your comments. Emily, you’re next. Hi. Sorry. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I am really vexed and also relieved at all the topics that are being raised tonight. You are, in fact, the Board of Health and mental health falls under that category.

52:10 If I have that correct, or if I have it incorrect, please get me, you know, make that correction for me. Last week, we came knocking on your door, pleading, please, what are you doing to address the issues in our town to help our children, to help our families? Nobody really gave us a lot of answers other than some 800 numbers, which were also repeated tonight as a source. Let me just tell you, you cannot get a healthcare professional, a therapist on a phone right now. It goes to voicemail. And if and when you do, a therapist right here in Marblehead told me today, in fact, he has gone from getting four to five referrals a month to getting four to five referrals a day. The demand supply negligence in this area is unconscionable. And I’m just happy that it’s on your agenda again tonight. I’m still not really hearing a whole lot of what’s happening to address the issue. But it has to continue to be on your agenda, please. Because this is not going away. Our voices are not going away because we represent our children’s voices. They are being treated so horribly right now, and they look to adults for help, and we’re not providing it. And I don’t want the blood on my hands. I don’t think anyone in this town does, but I’m tired. I’m tired of listening to my employees and my families and my children and their friends not get the help they need.

53:51 It does fall under the Board of Health. And Todd, I have to ask a question. If this isn’t the forum to affect that, especially when you say that it’s your suggestion that’s going to our school committee, then what is the forum? I didn’t say this wasn’t the forum about mental health. I said this isn’t the forum to re-litigate the school committee’s decision from last week. And I’m not doing that. I didn’t say you were, but that’s the only thing that I said wasn’t the forum tonight. You said it is not the forum to affect the school committee. No, I believe I just said it’s not the forum to discuss last week’s meeting and to pick that part. Well, I wrote it down as you said it. I’m sure we can go back, but what is your effect then on the school committee in this regard? So in this regard, in every regard, if they ask us, we can make recommendations. We can consult back and forth. We have a nice collaboration, but we cannot tell them what to do.

55:05 Are you aware of the statistics that I just told you about? I mean, you guys. As far as the mental health in the community, we have discussed it every week. We’re as frustrated as you. If they’re not therapists, I’m not a therapist. I can’t help anybody. I spoke to two friends of mine this week to ask them to make themselves available extra hours. I don’t know what they’ve done with it. Michelle is looking toward other solutions. I think that we’re as troubled as you are, but sometimes we can’t solve everything. But if you look at our mission statement that we wrote last week and that we live by, it’s in our mission statement, the mental health of the… And I think also in our goal was at number three on our goals. I don’t have it in front of me, but it was there. So it’s very high on our list, and it’s certainly high on my list. I’m a past president of the counseling center. So believe me, I am very concerned. Dr. Bucky last week mentioned that he was going to ask you to help get our teachers vaccinated and bumped up on the list. Is that something that you are collaborating together to try to accomplish? Emily, we’re not allowed to do that. So only Secretary Sutter will listen to people and change the order. The order is regulated by the state of Massachusetts, not locally.

56:37 I just mentioned it because Dr. Bucky said it. So he has misinformation? Again, it’s regulated by the state of Massachusetts. We discussed that people that are taking people out of order, specifically teachers, have lost their ability to vaccinate. That would be the next step if we did the teachers now. Believe me, I believe the teachers should have been before the 75-year-olds. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Alexia? I’m going to start my video. Here I am. Okay. Hi, guys. I wanted to come on tonight, first of all, to thank you for giving me the courage to speak to the school committee this past week. I came to you last week, my first Board of Health meeting, just to kind of talk to you about our concerns as a family. I mentioned to you that we have two friends who had horrible instances with their sons, and we were just extremely worried. And then when we started talking to our son, Niall, he was very worried about his friends, et cetera, et cetera. So thank you for listening to me last week. Thank you for giving me the direction to speak in front of the school committee, which I did, and my son, Niall, did as well.

58:14 And as a result of that, there’s a whole task force in place now for the kids at the high school. You know, Niall’s been asked to speak and to help, and I feel like the kids are getting their needs met, and people are reaching out to them and making sure they’re okay. And my email was inundated. My text message was inundated with people feeling the same way that we all feel. It’s overwhelming, you know, COVID, the isolation, everything. So I just wanted to thank you for that. The second thing I wanted to ask about, and I know I was late to the meeting, it may have already been discussed, was pool testing. We got an email from Dr. Bucky, and my husband, as you know, is a doctor, and we read over the email. We didn’t understand. There seemed to be some inconsistencies with what we thought we understood from the DESI guidelines. So I was hoping that you could clarify that. It sounds like Dr. Bucky has put that up on the website and changed it, but I think a lot of people on this call are interested in hearing what that looks like because we all need to opt into it. So I just want to make sure that we’re clear on what it is. And then the third thing is, given now that we’re in this, you know, mental health epidemic, trying to figure out what to do, in preparation for this meeting, I just placed a phone call. I looked up all the Marblehead counseling centers and Marblehead therapists and called them all.

59:49 And I got the same exact message on everyone’s, which is we’re inundated with phone calls. We cannot get to you. If you need a medication filled, we can help you. But other than that, you’ll have to wait a few days. And so, you know, Mike and I have worked in some missionary type of, you know, capacity. And sometimes when you’re in sort of an emergency mode, you have to just triage care. So I’m not a mental health therapist. I don’t know a lot about it. But I had asked at last week’s Board of Health, maybe we need a subcommittee on mental health. Maybe we need to start thinking about this, since this seems to be such a huge issue for everyone in Marblehead is, you know, where our focus should be in Marblehead. So I know that he would triage and he, you know, he’s a urologist. So he would say, who has a urinary care? Who has this? And we would put people, I don’t know if you can do that in this capacity. But it seems like, from what I’m hearing and all the emails and all the people who are struggling and we seem to have raised this issue among a lot of different people. What can we do? Can we triage? Can we do something? Or can we, I know you have a contract, you mentioned a $60,000 contract with Marblehead counseling. Can we just hire a couple therapists to take a group or to maybe do some group sessions? Because the need seems to be great and I am very concerned.

1:01:23 So anyhow, I just want to come on tonight and I want to thank you because I know that you’re overworked and overtired and, you know, this is a big issue for everyone. And I’m just so pleased that we’re making some progress and we seem to be raising some more attention to this issue because our children are extremely important to all of us and their mental health is really important and more than we even realize. This epidemic, this pandemic is affecting them in such a severe way and it’s really important that we raise it and I do believe it falls in the purview. So Andrew, I know that Michael and Joanna worked over the summer to kind of come up with protocols to make sure that Pleon was up and running to get those in place. And I know that you’re working hard with the school reopening committee to make sure that those protocols are in place. I think it’s really important that we are very clear on what we can do to make sure we can get school back. A lot of families need the resources. A lot of women are out of work. They’ve left their jobs because they need to be with their kids. They’re worried about their mental health. They’re worried about their families falling apart. So whatever we can do as a community to support that, I think we all need to be on the same page and working in the same direction to support everyone. So that’s it. That’s all I have to say. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Michelle, your husband? Thank you.

1:02:54 Thank you, Alexia, Emily, everyone for sharing your thoughts. Just wanted to point out that I know I had seen information that Dr. Bauer was sharing with regard to mental health services to his students. I know that the, no, I’m forgetting exactly what their titles are, that health specialists teaching health and wellness at the middle school are doing social and emotional learning in their health classes and that teachers are referring kids to guidance in the schools when they seem withdrawn, etc. So I know that there is a lot happening within the schools and I applaud our teachers and guidance for recognizing and reaching out and doing all they can. And of course, we know that isn’t enough. And I am really open to the idea. I don’t know what that would look like for us as a board to think about some kind of subcommittee that could put our heads together. I mean, I know we’ve had subcommittees in the past, you know, around the transfer station when this was a crucial thing that we needed to focus on. We’ve had a subcommittee.

1:04:26 I don’t know what that would look like, Andrew, Helene and Todd. I don’t know how we would staff that, you know, recruit for it or whatever. But I say to you, co-board members and director, I’m willing to think about how we, you know, as you said, Alexia, triage and think about that because I do think clearly these once a week meetings, we are not, as you, those of you who follow how all this process works, we cannot meet between these meetings and fit and noodle on all this and come up with ideas. So what you’re seeing here is that, you know, we can’t do a lot of brainstorming in between meetings. We can’t even share emails together and come up with ideas. Like, this is how open meetings work. So it’s very hard for us to accomplish a lot of work in between these meetings. It really does sign any progress that we can make. So I don’t know how that would work. I, you know, I think we all agree that there is a crisis in that as it as much as it falls under our purview, we want to see progress made. But, you know, here we sit in these meetings and it’s hard for us to make progress in between meetings. So, you know, I, if there’s an interest in figuring out how we set up a subcommittee,

1:06:04 and recruit some people to work on it, I don’t see how that can be a negative thing, I guess. Could I, Alexa, you said there’s a subcommittee that was just appointed at the high school. Would you imagine that the subcommittee that you would like to see at the Board of Health would be different? Would you see that a subcommittee at the Board of Health that you’re picturing would be different than what was appointed at the high school? Oh, very different. Yes. I mean, the high school is terrific. I mean, they have pulled together, you know, as in Niles opinion as a, you know, 17 year old, the coolest teachers, this great group of people who the kids feel comfortable talking with, you know, kind of a task force for the high school. This is very different. This is community wide. I mean, we have a whole community of people in our town who are struggling on a bunch of different levels. So, yes, very, very different. This is not school related. This is just our community. How come we, you know, you mentioned last week, you know, two things that struck me. Number one, Marblehead Counseling Center, you have this amazing grant that you’re, you know, you’re funding this. And number two, Andrew said, you guys are so overworked. You’re so over tasked. You’re meeting every single week. There’s so much going on. So I just felt like maybe we need, I don’t, I’m not quite sure. I don’t know how it works politically in terms of these structures, but it seems like you need a task force or you need some group of professionals kind of giving us some insight into how can we, and I use the word triage because that’s all I know in the work that we do.

1:07:56 And I think one of the things that we’ve done is, you know, when we’re given sort of an emergency situation, what we have done in the past doesn’t always work. So maybe we need to move in a different direction and help more people as best we can, you know, during a difficult time of crisis for everyone. I think I suggested that we invite the director, Benday, to hear. Is that something that we can do? He’s coming. I believe he’s coming on the 23rd. Okay, good. And he’s probably exhausted. I know even when we weren’t in a crisis years ago, because he comes every year to our meetings, he comes to our meetings at 730 and he’s never even gone home. So he works right through at normal times. So I appreciate that he’s going to be able to come. And I think we’ll ask him these questions, what we can do as a board to assist him. And thank you. In the past, the school has had a health and wellness committee that has looked at a variety of different things. And there’s also been a board member that has sat on that, but we have not had that for quite some time. Andrew, I do just want to point out the school still has that committee. I just believe that the Board of Health hasn’t been given a seat at it in a few years. Really? That’s interesting. Well, but not with the new superintendent.

1:09:30 Yeah, I was the liaison to that when Mary Ann Perry was on board. But it didn’t meet for many, many moons. And I was constantly trying to get the, you know, trying to figure out when the next meeting was going to be. If the, and I was told that it hadn’t been meeting. So if it has been reconstituted and has been meeting without a representation from the Board of Health, that’s a conversation for another day. That’s a real mess to not have representation from the Board of Health. So just want to make that known that that is not a good thing. So if we’re even going to consider subcommittee, we need to figure out logistics membership. I mean, there’s a lot of things that would have to go into play. We haven’t had a subcommittee since the transfer station one. So I’m not sure how it even would get started. Andrew, how does that logistically look? What goes into it? Well, I mean, that’s up to you guys and how you’d want to, you know, create it and who’s going to be on it. How many members, what’s the purview of it? I mean, obviously, the local health department is a very small cog in total public health. I mean, obviously, we look at our hospitals, our local, you know, even our school systems are supposed to be supporting into public health through counseling services.

1:11:09 Like I said, we are, you know, barely three and a half employees. So we are a very small piece of the large cog of the health network. So people need to remember that. And obviously, we are concerned about mental health. And obviously, the alarm bell should be going off in the school system right now to say, hey, we need to be addressing this in the school. And we will definitely need to address this in the general public. But yeah, you know, if you wanted to take a look at this, you would have to form a subcommittee and start to look at it. Unfortunately, some of this, you know, it takes some time and it’s not always really quick out of the gate. That’s what I was going to say. Task force is usually a longer period than what one might be looking for for this because you’re looking for a quick fix because this is the problem is right now. And I don’t think a task force will do the trick. But the other thing is this money involves. And I don’t know where that money would be coming from, whether people on the task force or on this group that’s gathered would have to do some grant writing or. But we couldn’t provide any funding if we if we if we put a task force together or whatever the group was called and then they say, well, we need $100,000 to run this program. It doesn’t seem like it’s anything that we could do. So, this is this is not as Alexia again, this is this is not a short term, just to be clear. I mean, this is not a short term at all.

1:12:45 You know, COVID is not short term for starters. And these these issues that we’re seeing in our country and also I think within our community because of the fact that I called, you know, these 10 just to do some research for this meeting. And everyone, this is a long term. So I don’t believe this is a short term task force. I think it’s a long term issue. And I think we need to think about an issue that’s really affecting a lot of people. The second thing, and I know, Helene, I heard from Andrew today, you are the person who is on the committee for the reopening of the schools. I want to hear about the pool testing. I received confusing emails and texts from friends and you know, Mike and I are on this call and we want to know what is the pool testing? How is it going to be? How is it going to work? And I hope that you are you able to present that to us tonight? Because that’s what I came on the call. We don’t have any. We are both waiting to hear about that. Thank you. We don’t have any jurisdiction over the pool testing. It’s completely a desi and a school department initiative. So we have we have nothing to do with how that’s run. No juris-diction. So you don’t write the protocols for how the schools are going to reopen because we worked with you this summer to reopen PLEON. So my understanding was you would help us write protocols to reopen the schools for the people who need to be in person.

1:14:16 The school department is autonomous and they make their decisions and we are here to recommend. Like you’ve heard over and over again. Do you have something about school department on this because your hand going up and down a lot and go out a little bit. I wasn’t going to talk about just from the schools but Alexi that’s definitely a school department question. I’m not going to answer it here. It’s not my meeting but it’s 100 percent a school department question. So school department Sarah because you are set on the school committee will they be presenting the pool testing so all of us can understand what is what it is so we can vote on it. It was on the agenda tonight’s meeting at five and it’s on the agenda again on five on Thursday Alexia. Five on Thursday it will be presented. I understand my understanding but feel free you know how to get in touch from the eye. I just don’t want to hijack their meeting. My the one thing I want to point out is this mental health crisis while being deeply deeply felt in the schools is not only in the schools. We have it throughout our community. What I would like to see as a citizen is a town wide task force with a representative of maybe this the Board of Health. This Council on Aging that’s another demographic that I think we have to acknowledge. You know that group is probably facing isolation and their own mental health crisis. And I think that we’re doing a disservice to our entire community.

1:15:48 If we think this is a just a school problem we could open up our schools completely tomorrow and that would help some things. But this crisis is not going away. I agree with Alexia. This is a long term long term uphill battle. And I personally would like to see it looked at you know across the town with all groups represented so we can hear the best way to help the various groups you know the school’s children. The Council on Aging those people multiple groups. Personally I would like to see a cross section of the town represented. I think that’s how we’re going to fix this as a community. OK so Erin you’ve had your hand up for a while. Thanks. So Andrew’s right. I mean you guys there’s three employees. I mean this is fair is absolutely correct. This is a town issue. We’ve been focusing a lot on the schools. It really is a town issue. And so maybe it’s time to demand that the town’s fund this other side of health needs. And you know just to point out the elephant in the room. I mean you guys presented your budget right. I mean ask for these things. Right. That wasn’t my point. That wasn’t really my comment.

1:17:20 I was just I would like to understand. Like I get that you guys serve in an advisory capacity when asked but. Like you’re being asked once a week. Correct on this reopening committee that Helene sits on. No not necessarily. I’m there. And if there’s something that I can share that’s the Board of Health Decision. I will I will share it and I don’t give my personal opinion. If I do I say it’s my personal opinion. But I really represent the board there. I’m here to get the information to bring it back to the board. And that’s why we’ve gone to a minute minutes instead of me verbally doing it. So that we’ll get them in advance and the board will see that. And if they have any questions they can ask me because it was very time consuming the other way. Right. And so we’re starting that next meeting because we haven’t the reopening committee has changed their days from from Monday to Thursday and we didn’t have a meeting this Monday. We’re having one Thursday. So we’re like skip to 10. It’s been 10 days since we’ve had a meeting. OK. So it will be 10 days. And so you don’t have the authority really to represent like as like the board. Obviously if you all have voted on something. I represent the board on the board’s decisions but not something. Only on what you guys know you agree on. And I guess you know I will say I’ll bring it back to the board and I’ll say OK.

1:18:55 OK. Thank you. I just need some clarity on that. So there is a give and take but I can’t do anything. So there’s sometimes a lag there. OK. So I mean on this committee they’re weighing in on school closures reopening and then I mean that really is the content of the committee. Correct. No. To do with the new building and all that. No. Is it building committee. No no. Opening committee. Oh we’re opening but we’re not talking about school closures. What do you mean? School and that kind of thing. And my understanding was the reopening committee is advising our superintendent around you know decisions like to go to remote for a week before. Well around yes but around covid but not globally about the town and the new schools and no no no I’m not saying that like specifically to covid the board like you as a as a representative of the board of health are there around school. And Andrew and Dr. Bucky have a very good relationship and they have some times that they have a give and take and he will work to Andrew for that. Again Aaron it’s still the reopening committee is still an advisory committee to the school committee. The school committee has the ultimate decision.

1:20:29 Right. I guess. OK. I understand that. But in terms of like you know. Advising so advising on whether we go remote for a week. Is it safe for kids to go to school. You know that kind of thing. And I think I guess it just seems to me that there seems to be a little disagreement among the board around the consideration of mental health pieces that go into this honestly. You know I mean clearly there’s a difference of opinion. Do you think that’s problematic. So first time we’ve heard Michelle give it a different slant on it and I and I think that she I think it to Michelle’s point like I think that she was she was you know that’s why it’s important for you guys to actually have a discussion around this because you are sitting in five. I just got covid. You’re sitting in a vice. So that’s what I think that’s the point that Michelle was making and I don’t want to put words in there. Maybe it’s now the point I’m making is that if you all don’t have agreement around this it’s a big piece right to this. You know I just don’t know how much. Maybe we don’t matter. I don’t know. I just don’t know how effective it is to have somebody who doesn’t have the the the the the. If you don’t have the consensus of the board. I’ll thank you. I mean here’s the thing. Yes.

1:22:00 We were advisory. We don’t make the decisions for the for the schools. But what we say here. Matters. And so to just say. We made our decision. You know in August and like that’s our decision. Like the reason I made my statement is because I do believe that despite the fact that we don’t make the decision for the schools. What we say matters and having a thoughtful discussion about it is important. And this is our only forum forum to have these discussions. We can’t have them in any other place because of our open meeting laws. So yeah I and do we have to come to consensus. No we’re individuals we may not come to consensus but having thoughtful discussions about it is is appropriate. I believe if you all you know don’t don’t have anything you want to say about it now. OK. If you feel like you have major you know whatever you’ve said your piece or in next week’s discussion or whatever.

1:23:35 But I do I do think this is the very place to have these discussions whether or not we are the the whether we whether or not we know. We make decisions about things. I think it is absolutely appropriate for us to have debates and discussions about what’s happening whether it be the schools whether we think it’s about what’s happening in restaurants whether it’s happening in sports or whatever. It’s absolutely appropriate to have any discussions about any of these health related issues mental health issues etc. I think it’s perfectly appropriate and we can agree we can vote we can set regulations we can just chat about it. That’s that’s our purview. I mean just to just to put out like another example and not just the mental health piece but you know clearly like Helene has expressed you’ve expressed like grave concern about the new variance. OK. So like I don’t really know what that means. I don’t know what that means you think the CDC and other department state public health officials aren’t taking it seriously or you would disagree with their findings and where you sit on the reopening committee that is you know that comes up. I would like to know like it’s important for us to know where you all stand. You understand.

1:25:07 Well let me since you wrote my name up Michelle brought up a topic tonight that was not on the agenda was something she’s thinking about. And I would imagine if she wants it on the agenda next week or won’t be next week because it’s vacation. But the next time we meet that we would discuss it. We would be thinking about it. We would make do some research on our own and we would come together. That’s how we’ve come together about a lot of decisions whether it be the transfer station whether it be the grass and the pesticides or anything that we’ve made the smoking ban the the I mean all those things. So we brought it up to the table and then it took it took time to discuss it. This is the first time she brought it up. It’s on the agenda. Helene reopening COVID-19. Am I looking at the wrong agenda. The agenda was COVID-19 update. And so that is a very vague term on purpose. Sometimes it does say reopening. We haven’t put that on a while. We’ve been because of the minutes that are coming out. We’re doing it a different way. We’re getting the minutes. And if the board has questions. So will you be opining on the reopening committee about the new variants coming out using it as your advisory role as you sit on that. I won’t say that unless the board votes that they’re concerned about it because I cannot. I can say that I personally and yeah. I think it’s a little problematic because we don’t need to be on TV.

1:26:39 It’s going to be shown a couple of times this week or next week or whenever. And people will see this. But I am worried about the variance. Do I know what’s happening? No. I don’t think that Dr. Fauci knows what’s happening. So I think that we hear that this is occurring. It’s going to happen. We see it overseas and I’m worried about it. Is the board worried about it? I don’t know. I said by himself he was but we haven’t really discussed it. And I don’t mean to be. I’m not waiting on you Helene. I’m just trying to understand roles and roles really. I just had to understand roles because those meetings. The opening committee is much to listen and bring it back to the board and probably more so. So that we can know what’s going on with the schools and as it is to bring information to them. And I want to reiterate Andrew and Dr. Bucky I don’t know when they speak or how often they speak but they do speak and they have discussions around various decisions. So does the board if they’re asked for to give advice on pool testing would they give advice? I can’t answer your question. We look to Andrew to give us information. In the minutes it’s been discussed at those reopening committees. Okay. The pool testing. So presumably if you’re having a seat at the Board of Health and Reopening Committee about pool testing you all would be in the position to give advice.

1:28:14 But have you had a position on it? No we have not. Well we’ve talked about it in these meetings. Yes we have. We haven’t made a decision though. I mean I know I’ve given you know after I watched Andrew watched the webinar I watched the webinar we gave our input. Oh sorry I didn’t raise my hand. No I watched it as well. I meant Todd. I said the word Andrew but I meant Todd. Todd watched the webinar. He gave one perspective on it. I gave another perspective. I’d be willing to give a few other perspectives now that it’s happening. Yeah I think it’s appropriate to wait for us to weigh in on pool testing. We are not running the pool testing unless you wanted details on the administration of that. That is not our role. But for us to say yes moving forward on pool testing this makes sense as a tool in the toolbox. You know X Y and Z. I think it’s appropriate personally for us to weigh in on nuances of pieces of it not on the logistics and administration of it. That would be a crossing a boundary I believe because it’s not us that’s administering it.

1:29:45 And to be clear tonight what was asked of us was about the logistics which. Correct. Correct. I agree. Whole heart. I mean I would just I just I’m just like you know it you know would you ever like take a motion and endorse it like the idea of it. I don’t even know if that’s appropriate but like you know you do have the advisory role. It’s like implicitly is being asked of you to advise it’s become up in the reopening committees there’s a seat at the table. I guess I just that’s all I’m saying. Thank you. Thanks Aaron. Thank you for your time. So Amy you were up and you were the last person tonight so please nobody else raise your hands. Thank you for having me. Thanks for all the hard work that you’ve been doing. I think I’m going to echo a little bit what Emily has said what Alexia has said and others as well. I have three sons. I have a freshman in high school a seventh grader at Betts and a third grader at Village. And two weeks ago my third grader told me that whenever his teacher walks in the classroom they start clapping for her because they’re so excited to see her. This is how bad it has gotten. No none of my three sons are depressed. I’m not worried about sending them to the ER but there’s a whole subset of students under there where the days they’re home doing remote work. It’s very bleak and I know it’s the wintertime and perhaps that’s adding to it. But at this point I’m just baffled that my middle schooler and my high schooler are only in school for in-person learning eight hours a week.

1:31:24 I know their teachers are going above and beyond. They’re doing everything possible to motivate them to engage them. But you know what when you’re a teenager you’re not meant to be home and I understand we’re in the middle of this pandemic. But according to the lead nurse she said last week there’s been no community spread. And so I guess I’m wondering why we’re just kind of stuck in this holding pattern and not getting more assistance and more guidance saying hey that’s great news. You know the special ed staff has been working with students you know five days a week from the beginning. I mean I’m just wondering why this is the case. It’s like we’re in this holding pattern waiting for things to get worse instead of saying wow things are getting better. There’s been vaccines rolled out. All three of my sons have reported their teachers and administrators are doing a phenomenal job. There is distancing everywhere. Even my third grader he says oh yeah we wear masks nobody fights it. I mean these kids know to be in school they got to follow the rules and everyone’s been doing such a fabulous job. And I’m I guess I’m just at this point just baffled and I’m concerned and I’m concerned about the subset of students. Maybe they’re not showing up in the ER but they’re just barely getting out of bed in the morning rolling out of bed. I’ve been working in the field of education for over 20 years. I’m a consultant in the area and I have so many parents tell me I can’t get my kids to get out of bed in the morning. I mean I’m just wondering what it’s going to take in the town of Marblehead. I understand if we were in a high risk community if our numbers were going up the vaccine hadn’t been rolled out and it just it’s at this point I think a lot of parents especially of these older students were just gravely concerned.

1:33:07 And because it just doesn’t seem like anything is progressing. So that’s it. Thank you. We have anything further to add we’ve been discussing this but you make mean everybody’s been making good points. It’s just a matter of how things will actually unfold. The Board of Health. She just said all the changes. Thank you. Michelle. So regarding the moving forward on some kind of subcommittee or task force or something around mental health. Excuse me. So I’m wondering how any thoughts on how we might proceed on pursuing that. I mean we’ve heard different thoughts about and I and I don’t remember it was so long ago that we set up the subcommittee. It’s going to be townwide. Anders has a meeting each week with the town administrators. Could we start there and then when Ben comes he might have some ideas.

1:34:39 But it’ll be better. Oh no. There’s a break. But I don’t think we should take this on without involving Ben. He’s the town’s counseling center. Why would you like that. The 60 thousand dollars doesn’t just go to the schools. I want you to know that. That was something that I kept hearing twice. So it’s it’s townwide. So I just don’t want you to think that’s for the schools. So I would suggest that Andrew could you bring this up at your department heads meeting. Are you meeting during the. No. So we just met today but I will call Jason tomorrow and talk to him about this. And the other thing is maybe you alert Ben and he might do some research. And then we could then in two weeks see if we could do something about it. And I will be speaking with Lisa Hooper at the Council on Aging and I know that. And we’ve talked we’re going to be talking about that idea of the kind of town hall which we want to put together in the very near future. But I can also mention it to her. I do think the aging population is another vulnerable and key community that we should be thinking about. But I but I do appreciate the suggestion and and I and I think we should actively pursue this idea and be thinking about it. It looks like we do have another hand raise.

1:36:13 It’s the same hand. Yep. Amy’s. So. All right. Well now motion to adjourn. Yes please. Do you want to next. We want a meeting two weeks in today. I think we’ve already said it actually for the 23rd. We did I thought we just did one meeting. All right. I think I’m all set. Yeah we said it. Okay. So we need to have non-COVID like your typical stuff on the agenda. Is that Sarah. Yeah. We so we we’ve told it’s all the same as we talked about recycling today. We don’t have all our meetings are about COVID and whatever else is coming up budget. Anything else. Motion to adjourn. Foul Sarah foul permits whatever we need to cover. Michelle knew what I was getting at. Thank you. You already have a file but you don’t need to come to us again. But foul but foul permit are always welcome. We love we love talking about chickens. Anytime we can take a pause from COVID and do a foul permit. We love it. But if you if you’ve already had one approved by us you just have to renew your license. You don’t have to come back to us to talk to us about it. Okay. I’m sorry. I really do feel foolish. I’m sorry. Elaine did you make a motion.

1:37:44 Right. Yeah. I second third and fourth that no I second the motion. I’m a season. In favor. Miss got lean favor. Dr. Bell finger in favor. That everybody.